MOLES AND WORMS
twenty-five years ago I and my family spent a holiday in i_snarkshire, and my boys struck up a friendship with the local trapper— one of the finest Scots characters it has been my good fortune to meet— and as a result they became interested in the ways of the mole and suc- ceeded in amassing enough pelts to provide their mother with a muff and tie. They used the old wooden barrel trap which is by no means easy to set. A field near one cottage, though One mass of mole casts, proved singularly unproductive, many traps being set without result. Leaning over, the field gate one evening and listening with pleasure and edification to the philosophy pf "Long Jim," the said trapper, I asked how many moles were required to make such a mess of a four-acre pasture. Old Jim looked the field over, and after a considerable pause and several puffs at his pipe, replied, " About yin" (about one). What bearing this may have upon the points at issue in your corre- spondence columns others more competent must decide. I merely state the considered opinion of a practical nature student who had been
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